Bob McDonnell

A federal jury Thursday found former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, guilty of public corruption–sending a message that they believed the couple sold the office once occupied by Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson to a free spending Richmond businessman for golf outings, lavish vacations and $120,000 in sweetheart loans.

After three days of deliberations, the seven men and five women who heard weeks of gripping testimony about the McDonnells’ alleged misdeeds acquitted the couple of several charges pending against them–but nevertheless found that they lent the prestige of the governor’s office to Jonnie R. Williams Sr. in a nefarious exchange for his largesse.

The verdict means that Robert McDonnell, who was already the first governor in Virginia history to be charged with a crime, now he holds an even more unwanted distinction: the first ever to be convicted of one.

He and his wife face decades in federal prison, though their actual sentence will probably fall well short of that.

Democrat Terry McAuliffe has based much of his campaign for governor of Virginia on his business experience, including his co-founding of an electric car company, GreenTech Automotive. McAuliffe stepped down as CEO of GreenTech in 2012 in preparation for his gubernatorial run.

Republican Bill Bolling, the two-term lieutenant governor of Virginia, has dropped out of the race for governor, CNN reports. Bolling was challenging Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for the Republican nomination. Here's more from CNN:

Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, the former chief of staff to President Barack Obama, is politicizing the clean-up of Hurricane Sandy and, he says he offered help to the Democratic mayors of Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. Emanuel does not appear to have made the same offer to Republican governors whose states have been hit by the storm.

On Sunday's political talk shows, several Republicans criticized the Obama administration's response to the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. Here's Senator John McCain of Arizona on CBS's Face the Nation:

A new poll from WTOP in Washington shows Barack Obama and Mitt Romney statistically tied in Northern VIrginia, the state's most populous region. Forty-eight percent of voters support Obama while 46 percent support Romney in the Virginia region of the D.C. metro area.

Virginia governor Bob McDonnell has been named chairman of the Republican National Convention Committee on Resolutions. The committee, generally referred to as the Platform Committee, will help set the agenda for the Republican party and convene during the party's convention next month in Tampa, Florida.

"Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota and Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee will serve as Co-Chairmen," a statement from the RNC reads.

On a Friday morning conference call with reporters, two Republican surrogates for the Mitt Romney campaign revealed two different strategies for responding to the Supreme Court’s decision to largely uphold Obamacare: focus on Romney's ability to fix an ailing economy above all, and push a broader conservative message about the role and scope of the federal government.

Ashburn, Va.Governor Bob McDonnell heaped praise Monday on George Allen as the two campaigned together the day before Tuesday’s GOP primary. “This is a man who was, I believe, the greatest reform governor of the modern era in Virginia,” said McDonnell alongside Allen to a crowd of Republicans gathered at Prototype Productions Incorporated, a small business just north of Dulles International Airport, touting the latter’s own record as governor on jobs and innovation.

Mitt Romney's campaign just announced the endorsement of Virginia governor Bob McDonnell. “As I have said throughout this primary process, we need a governor to serve as our next president,” McDonnell said in a prepared statement mailed out by the campaign.

With solid poll ratings as a swing state governor, McDonnell is already drawing attention as a possible GOP vice-presidential prospect in 2012. And in an extended interview in his office here, the Virginia governor expressed interest in the number two spot on the national ticket.